A friend of mine and her housemate have a chalkboard outside on their front porch that is situated near the street. The chalkboard is mounted roughly at eye-level to any average-adult-height people walking by. The words written on the board change from week to week and usually include an excerpt from a poem or other writing. I love the idea of this chalkboard and how it brings a bit of creativity to the street and commented one time that I might try to further the trend by having a similar feature at the front of my home as well. For some logistical reasons, I don’t as of yet so for now, I will satisfy this interest with a cyber-board and call the blog’s quote of the week space something like “On the Chalkboard” with a weekly (or so) rotation of collected words.
I was thinking that it would also be nice to have an archive of these, so I will also add the weekly quotes into blog entries that can easily be found by clicking on the “on the chalkboard” link at the right under categories.
The first quote of the week that aired on this blog was taken from a card I came across one evening in a card shop during the time that this blog was coming close to fruition. The card read: What is possible should be done right away. What is impossible might take a little longer. (See reference below.) As I mentioned in my first entry, this blog was born at a time when I was very depleted physically and emotionally. For some reason, this little card offered me a spark. It connected to a core inside of things I believe in and that have pulled me forward over and over again as I have stumbled and persevered along toward various visions and goals.
The task is to create possibility in the face of impossibility. I heard someone say this once many years ago and I have never forgotten. At the time, they were saying it to me in direct application to my life. It was my task to persevere when it all seemed quite impossible. I have done that with the help of others (known and unknown) and continue to aim in that direction. I have also been thinking about how this has become one cornerstone of my work helping others. There are many times when that’s what the people I am working with are doing, what I am doing, what we are doing–bit by tiny bit, creating and working to create possibility.
I realize I have a thing for this: I have a thing for the small. I also hold a kind of powerful knowing and belief that it is in the writing of one word, then one more word, then another that leads to the writing of a poem, an essay, a book; it is in the laying of one brick, the entry of one computer programming code, the planting of one seed, then the next that leads to the development of a larger whole.
One of my neighbours who is about 84, if I recall correctly, impresses me regularly. She’s out shoveling snow, out for daily walks, busy baking, growing food, praying. Early on, I sometimes experienced her as a bit more forward than what felt completely comfortable to me but I have since come to see her as quite amazing and lovely. One day, perhaps two summers ago when I was dealing with some significant and very stressful house problems –perhaps as the worst of it was coming to an end–we were outside and she put her hand on my shoulder and said to me in an encouraging, empathetic, and kind way, an Italian phrase that I did not understand. Then she translated, effectively saying, Rome wasn’t built in a day but brick by brick. Yes, I knew that was true and still know it deep in my heart–though sometimes I have wished something could be built or change or come about much faster, sometimes for myself as applied to my own life or circumstance and sometimes for someone else, for example, when they are experiencing so much hardship or suffering or stress.
So the little, beautiful card, made me think of all that–or conjured up one feeling or thought, that connected and conjured up another, that led me to tune in again to certain kinds of information and ideas, and so on.
The card with this blog’s first quote of the week comes from a Canadian owned and operated family business called “Heritage Gallery Designs” and the painting the card was based on is by Emily Filler. To explore these gems further, visit www.thegentlepath.com and www.emilyfiller.com.
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